The United States of America is one of the largest countries in the world. It is a very powerful and highly developed country. The USA is situated in central North America, with Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The two newest states, Alaska and Hawaii, are separated from the continental United States. Alaska borders on northwestern Canada, and Hawaii lies in the central Pacific Ocean.

The country is very large and has many kinds of land, climate, and people. It stretches 2,575 kilometers from north to south and 4,500 kilometers from east to west. The mountain forests of the north-west coast are watered with more than 250 centimeters of rain each year. But the deserts of the southwest receive less than 13 centimeters annually. A traveler can find parts of the United States that remind him of home. There are pine forests and mountain peaks, meadows and sea cliffs, wide grassy plains and sandy beaches.

The total area of the USA is 9,372,614 square kilometers. Alaska is the largest of America's 50 states, with a land mass of 1,477,887 square kilometers. It is nearly 400 times the size of Rhode Island, which is the smallest state.

The population of the USA is over 260 million people. Despite its size, only approximately 525,000 people live in Alaska.

A flight from New York to San Francisco takes five and a half hours. Airlines serve 834 cities throughout the country. A coast-to-coast trip by train takes three days. A trip by automobile from coast-to-coast takes five to six days.

The USA is also a land of bountiful rivers and lakes. The state Minnesota, for example, is known as the land of 10,000 lakes.

The Mississippi is one of the world's greatest rivers, like the Amazon in South America, the Congo in Africa, the Volga in Europe. Together with the Missouri (its chief western branch), the Mississippi flows some 6,400 kilometers from its northern sources in the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi has been called the "father of waters."

All the rivers east of the Rockies finally reach the Atlantic; all the waters to the west of the Rockies finally arrive at the Pacific. The two great rivers of the Pacific side are the Colorado in the south and the Columbia, which rises in Canada and drains the north. Both rivers, very different in character, are vital sources of life. The Colorado is a river of enormous fury; it is wild, restless, and angry. It races, cutting deeply into the desert rocks. The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is cut 1.6 kilometers in depth. Even the furious Colorado has been dammed and put to work. All the farms and cities of the southwestern corner of the country depend on its waters. The Rio Grand, about 3,200 kilometers long, is the foremost river of the Southwest. It forms a natural boundary between Mexico and the United States, which together have built irrigation and flood-control projects.

The largest lakes of the USA (Lake Superior, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario) lie on the border with Canada. One of the world's wonders, the Niagara Falls, is on the Niagara River, which empties the water of Erie into Ontario.

The Appalachians are old mountains which are covered by forests from their base to their rounded tops. The Rocky Mountains, which run from New Mexico to Alaska, are called the "backbone" of America. The series of western ranges, paralleling the Pacific coast, are Sierra Nevada (California), the Cascade Range, the Coast Range. Between the Rockies and the Sierra, Nevada-Cascade Mountains lies the Great Basin, a group of vast plateaus with deserts and deep canyons in the south.

The Cascade Mountains and the Sierra Nevada Mountains catch most of the rain off the Pacific Ocean. As a result, there is too little rain in the western part of the country. Farmers must depend on water from irrigation.

The 50-centimeter rainfall line runs north and south almost through the middle of the country. East of the line farming is easy, and the population is relatively large. West of the line, one finds dry farming, grazing, and fewer people.

The greatest wonder in the state of California is the forests of sequoia, they are over 3,000 years old and the oldest living things ever known.

The capital of the USA is Washington, D.C. Among other big cities are New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Lilo Zsolnay - USA Country Studies